It's Possible That Shaq Thinks Irish People are Pirates

Over the weekend, the already legendary shit-talker Conor McGregor won a very exciting MMA fight over Chad Mendes. McGregor is Irish—as can be discerned from his accent, or his last name beginning in one of the two Irish surname constructions "Mc[whatever]" or "O'[whatever]"—which means he and Shaquille O'Neal are countrymen. As such, Shaq went for national pride and picked McGregor to win the fight.

What followed is one of the more hilariously nonsensical misunderstandings you're going to find.

@danawhite @joerogan @JayGlazer us Irishmen gotta stick together I'm goin with CONNOR MCGREGOR first round knockout
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) July 12, 2015

SHIVER ME TIMBERS IRISH WIN AGAIN WAY TO GO CONNOR MCGREGOR WHAT A FIGHT WOW
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) July 12, 2015

Now, look. I don't know, maybe Shaq came across an Irish person who said "Shiver me timbers!" all the time and just assumed. Or maybe he met an actual salty-ass pirate with an eye patch, who also happened to be Irish. We just don't know. What we do know is that Shaquille O'Neal was jacked up that McGregor won and not once, but twice tweeted "Shiver me timbers" in a way that strongly suggested he thought it was some kind of Irish rallying cry. And he's done it before, too!

@1stScottESmith shiver me timbers mate
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) March 13, 2013

@Hypno_T0ad shiver me timbers
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) August 8, 2010

As we all most of us know, "Shiver me timbers" is something fictional pirates always say when they're surprised or scared or something. I believe it is based on actual pirate speech, but I'm not sure on the etymology aside from some very specific things, like, "not Irish."

Many thanks to the folks at Reddit for flagging this.